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Tarantulas
Tarantulas is a devious Predacon scientist in the Beast Wars: Transformers continuity. While he joined the Predacon criminal Megatron on his voyage to prehistoric Earth, he held no true allegiance to him and had, in fact, been acting as a spy for the Tripredacus Council. During the Beast Wars, Tarantulas attempted to shift the conflict towards an unclear endgame in which neither the Predacons or Maximals won, but would nonetheless alter the destiny of Cybertron and the Transformer race forever. History At an unknown time prior to the departure of the Darksyde from Cybertron, Tarantulas had joined a Predacon criminal organisation led by Cryotek. When Megatron organised his plan to steal the Golden Disk and travel to Earth, Tarantulas volunteered to join the Darksyde crew. What Megatron and the other crew members didn't know was that Tarantulas was actually an agent of the Predacon Secret Police that reported directly to the Tripredacus Council. Like the Council members, Tarantulas is descended from neither Autobot or Decepticon, but originates from a completely different source. After stealing the Golden Disk, Megatron and his crew fled Cybertron aboard the Darksyde which was equipped with a transwarp drive. They would find themselves pursued by the Maximal survey vessel Axalon captained by Optimus Primal, which followed the Darksyde through transwarp space. After emerging from transwarp, both ships were damaged in an exchange of fire and were caught in the gravitational pull of a nearby planet. The two vessels crash-landed not far from one another, too badly damaged to ever fly again. The Predacons and Maximals found that the planet was abundant in crystallized energon, but so raw that the radiation it gave off was hazardous to Cybertronian physiology. To protect themselves from energon build-up, both sides adopted new, partially organic beast-modes based on the planet's local life-forms. Tarantulas would adopt the form of a giant tarantula, a testament to his insidious nature and his penchant for instilling fear in others. In the early days of the Beast Wars, Tarantulas kept up the facade of serving Megatron and his crew, but all the while he would be scheming behind his leader's back. His machinations would be accelerated by the discovery of a number of alien ruins belonging to a race known as the Vok, a species that Tarantulas may have been aware of prior to the Predacons' arrival on the planet. In any case, Tarantulas harboured a deep hatred for the mysterious aliens and was determined to destroy them if the opportunity ever arose. Among Tarantulas' various contributions to the Predacon cause was the acquisition of a Maximal stasis pod which contained a protoform which Tarantulas would transform into the femme fatale Blackarachnia. Tarantulas and Blackarachnia would work together in a plot to discover the purpose behind the alien presence on the planet and their search revealed that the planet's second moon was an artificial construct. The construct was in fact a doomsday weapon capable of planetary destruction and Tarantulas attempted to stop it by converting a stasis pod into a small one-bot vessel that could achieve escape velocity using a transwarp cell. Before he could enact his plan, Tarantulas was discovered by Inferno and slagged. Fortunately, Blackarachnia entered Tarantulas's mind to obtain the information to complete the escape ship, and he was able to set up a permanent neural link between the two Predacons. After Optimus Primal sacrificed himself to destroy the Vok planet-buster, the alien device released a quantum surge upon its destruction. The surge detonated much of the energon deposits across the planet and some of the Maximals and Predacons were physically altered, gaining new Transmetal forms. Tarantulas' body had also been altered by the surge, but his mind still resided in Blackarachnia's body, and so he used her as his puppet to recover his body and reignite his spark. After returning to the Predacon base, Blackarachnia restored Tarantulas to life in his new body, but the psychotic spider still maintained the psychic link with her and could still control her actions at will. Megatron soon called him to the battlefield, so he left Blackarachnia to root around in their leader's computer files: by this point, the loss of the "moon" and the damages to the planet had revealed it to be prehistoric Earth all along... Using his new cycle mode, Tarantulas quickly reached the Maximals' position. During the fight, he kept in contact with her, until a shot by Dinobot put him temporarily out of commission. After he came around, Blackarachnia reported that she'd failed to get the data he needed. The Predacons were soon routed by the resurrection of Optimus Primal, and forced to return to base. There, Megatron and Tarantulas questioned Blackarachnia, only to be told the vital data had been lost. Neither of them believed her, but didn't call her out. With his old lair destroyed by the planet-buster, Tarantulas was fortuitous in that Megatron assigned him with Blackarachnia and Quickstrike to check out a cave filled with energon. He quickly surmised that it would make an excellent new lair, and attempted to get his two comrades interested in going it alone. Blackarachnia was more interested in getting rid of the neural link the two of them shared, and cracked an energon cube, sending feedback through the link, to force him to sever it. By a fortunate coincidence, the three Predacons were soon attacked by Silverbolt and Rattrap, and during the battle Tarantulas was able to convincingly fake the destruction of the cave, allowing him to utilize it as his own lair. Some time later, Tarantulas's instruments detected activity at an alien site. He arrived shortly after Tigatron and Airazor had been abducted, and zapped Cheetor, but was forced to retreat when more Maximals arrived. He visited Megatron, claiming to no longer be under the tyrant's command, but willing to help. The Predacons returned to the alien site to set up equipment, during which Blackarachnia revealed that she had learned through the broken neural link that Tarantulas hated the aliens. Megatron, Quickstrike, and Tarantulas recovered quickly from the energy wave put out by the new alien construct, and after Tarantulas's refractive web was activated, the trio ventured inside. Once Megatron had control of the construct, he terminated his alliance with Tarantulas, dropping him from a great height. Infuriated, Tarantulas helped the Maximals attack the construct, infiltrating it along with Rattrap, and sabotaging the transwarp cells which Megatron installed, causing the ship to explode. Through a bug planted on Megatron's chair, Tarantulas learned that Blackarachnia had been sent to recover a new protoform, and took the opportunity to threaten her to try and extract the information he suspected she'd gained from Megatron's computers. Unfortunately for him, Silverbolt stepped in and defended Blackarachnia, shortly before an energon explosion separated everyone. Though Tarantulas found the stasis pod, its contents found him, and his body parts were spread liberally over a wide area. Dinobot later tracked down Tarantulas in an attempt to find out what Megatron's latest scheme was. Though Tarantulas didn't know, Dinobot forced him to act as transport, and they soon found Megatron preparing to torch a valley full of proto-humans. Tarantulas took advantage of Dinobot's distraction to shoot the Maximal, only for Dinobot to drop a boulder on him. Alerted by the transwarp wavefront, the Tripredacus Council sent covert agent Ravage to capture Megatron. The former Decepticon led the Maximals to apprehend Megatron, and Tarantulas assisted by taking down the Darksyde's defense system. Megatron, much to his indignation, was later informed by Ravage that the spider was a lieutenant in the Predacon Secret Police; Tarantulas joined in the diss by laughing over a comm-screen at his former boss. Tarantulas was able to inform the Maximals of the location of a stash of energon crystals that Megatron had hidden. When Ravage was persuaded to change sides by the Predacon leader, Tarantulas appeared to come too, manning the transwarp cruiser's weapons systems for an attack on the Axalon. Alas, Rattrap chewed his way into the ship and tossed a couple of bombs at Tarantulas, which stuck to his hands before exploding. Tarantulas survived, though, and was quickly put back together by his arachnoids. He was repaired in time to witness the destruction of the Axalon. He was soon seen back at the Predacon base, working under Megatron's command once again with no mention of his former secession. However, around this time he was also working on another scheme: restoring the Nemesis, the flagship of the Decepticon fleet! At some point, he'd found it lying at the bottom of the ocean, and was ensuring it would not only fly again but had a Predacon control console and a transwarp cell that could take it back to Cybertron. Tarantulas later battled the Maximals alongside Megatron's cyber raptors, taking the opportunity to try out his new Transmetal cyber-venom to great success, though he was stomped on by a cyber raptor once the Maximals worked out how to destroy their controls. He assisted in the construction of Megatron's disruptor cannon, suggesting that they abduct an early human to complete the device when the other Predacons were unable to get too close to it due to the unstable power source. While the cannon was completed by Una, she managed to use her knowledge of levers to tip a piece of heavy equipment on him. Though he survived, Una had taken the cannon's stabilizer crystal, and it exploded in the Predacons' faces when they tried to use it. When the Maximals attempted to remove Blackarachnia's shell program, he revealed to Megatron that he had included "certain safeguards" that guaranteed she would not survive, and joined the other Predacons in an attack on the Maximals that was meant to disrupt the attempted shell removal. He fired the missile which knocked the Maximals' power off-line at a crucial instant, seemingly bringing an end to his "treacherous creation". Enraged by the death of his beloved, Silverbolt attempted to kill the scientist, but was thwarted by Rampage, who was later defeated by a revived—and Transmetalized—Blackarachnia. Tarantulas participated in the Predacons' next attempt to retake the Ark, utilising his latest invention to allow Quickstrike to take control of Optimus Primal... and that was when he made his move, at last. He manipulated Quickstrike into throwing Megatron into the nearby lava while he himself set the Ark's engines to overload. Megatron survived his submersion, gaining a new body in the process after he had mingled his spark with that of his namesake, the former Decepticon commander Megatron. However, he had lost his patience. While he'd tolerated Tarantulas' treachery, he could not tolerate incompetence. Tarantulas survived his punishment and fled back to his lair. This appears to have not been what Quickstrike thought he was going to do, and neither he nor Megatron had any idea why he'd planned to destroy the whole Ark. Tarantulas was left ranting in his lair about how the Tripredacus Council's plans were wrecked, while his systems monitored the Nemesis (which was finished by this point). However, his rant and Nemesis plans were interrupted when the aliens—now revealed to be called the Vok—sent their emissary Tigerhawk to Earth. Tarantulas let him take out the Predacons, then used his arachnoids to disable and capture him. Tarantulas intended to force the all-powerful being into his servitude by drawing the Vok influences out of his body and reprogramming him, and then have him obliterate the Ark. He cheerfully told the emissary that as he nor the Council had Autobot or Decepticon origins, they'd survive the resulting timestorm, turn Cybertron into a universe-conquering force, and one day even conquer the Vok themselves! The scheme backfired, however, as his energy beam device expelled two actual Vok out of Tigerhawk. The formless spectres attempted to take over Tarantulas' body. Panicking, he made a religious sign to ward them off and then opened fire on them—a futile gesture that merely served to spin the energy device around 'til its rays were blasting him and his lab equipment. Overloaded by the beams, Tarantulas exploded, leaving nothing behind but his boots. The remainder of his equipment detonated seconds later, blowing the lair to rubble. Cheetor managed to rescue the inert Tigerhawk, and Tarantulas was presumed destroyed. Personality Tarantulas is the quintessential "mad scientist"; he is highly intelligent and always coming up with new devices and schemes to pursue his goals. He is also treacherous and manipulative, having regularly used others as pawns in his plans, including Megatron. He constantly observes and studies events occurring around him, adjusting his plans as much as the situation allows so that the outcome is always favourable for him. Tarantulas is also a deranged psychopath who enjoys inflicting both physical and psychological suffering on others. He frequently cackles hysterically and likes to feed on both organic and robotic prey to sate his sadistic appetites. Like the spiders he models himself on, Tarantulas enjoys sucking the lifeblood out of his victims, leaving their bodies as desiccated husks. Forms and abilities Base form After the Predacons and Maximals arrived on ancient Earth, they adopted semi-organic beast modes in order to protect themselves from being over-saturated with energon radiation. Tarantulas adopted the form of a giant tarantula and with this form gained the ability to crawl along all surfaces and weave energon-based webbing. His webs were capable of immobilising victims and sapping them of their strength, allowing Tarantulas to feed on their energon while they were incapable of resisting. In his robot mode, Tarantulas' arms ended in pincers much like a crustacean's. He wielded a harpoon gun which he could use to grapple ledges and gain elevation. This gun could also fire ballistic projectiles as well. His most notable armaments, however, were the machine-guns installed in his arachnid legs which were mounted on his back while in robot mode, giving him a great amount of firepower with wide firing range. Transmetal form When the Vok planet-buster device detonated, it released a quantum surge wave that altered the bodies of several of the Transformers, including Tarantulas. In this new Transmetal form, Tarantulas was physically stronger and his new carapace allowed him to resist high temperatures. His pincers had been replaced with clawed hands outfitted with retractable blades for slashing foes in close-quarters. As well as his beast mode, Tarantulas sported a new cycle mode as well, modifying his beast form with wheels so that he could traverse terrain at much greater speeds. Tarantulas maintained all his previous abilities and gained some new weapons as well. His new primary weapon was a buzzsaw-shaped device that not only could be used to shred Maimals at close-range, but could also function as a plasma caster for long-range. The buzzsaw rifle also became Tarantulas' front wheel in cycle mode. His machine-guns were now built into his shoulders and could inflict greater damage, though their range had been reduced. Also installed in his shoulders were cluster bomb launchers that released a spread of rocket-propelled projectiles. Category:TV Characters Category:TV Robots Category:Alien Robots Category:Sentient Robots Category:Transformers Category:Beast Wars Category:Predacons Category:Animated Robots Category:CGI Robots Category:Transformers Multiverse Category:Toy Robots Category:Scientists Category:War Machines